I have been to Rome a couple of times. I used Michelin guides as well as audio tours to visit the Vatican, St. Peter's, Forum, etc. I am considering taking the Context Rome or Icon tours. I have heard so much about them that I am tempted. Is this overkill?

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I don't think it's overkill at all. A good guide can add a lot to the experience. Especially for the Forum, it really helps to know what you're looking at. I took an Icon tour for both the Vatican and Ancient Rome and had excellent guides for both. Context Rome has smaller groups but is also much more expensive. Depends on which is more important to you, price or size of group.

I took the same Icon tours that Susan P did. I think the one of the Forum was the most beneficial...without some sort of guide or guide book, it's just ruins!

We used Angel Tours Rome for our Vatican, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica Tour. They were fantastic. We had 2 small groups of 8 each and 2 tour guides. Our tour lasted approx. 3-4 hours. I highly recommend them. They also do other tours in Rome.

We booked a tour of the Colosseum directly through the Colosseum and there were 40 in our group. Way too many people. We could not always hear the guide because we got stuck in the back of the group and she was more difficult to understand. I would suggest that you look for a tour group w/ very small numbers so you can get the maximum benefits out of the tour.

It also depends upon what you are looking for in a tour. Do you just want the basic information or more detailed information. Some guides are more in-depth than others.

I used Icon for three separate tours - Vatican, Forum and Colosseum and fountains at night. These folks were very organized and professional. I was given the same tour guide for the three tours which was nice. Our groups were very small, 3-5 but, it was November, and she never rushed a tour. St. Peter's and the Vatican was well over three hours and while our group was a little tired at the end, it was an excellent tour. When I take my son to Roma, we will definitely sign up with them again.

The thing about a Vatican museums/Sistine/St. Peters tour is that there is simply no place to sit during the tour. Please try to be fresh for the tour, no matter the time of day (our meeting time was 12:45).

Thank you for your advice. I believe I will take an Icon tour for the Forum. There is plenty of information for other venues, you'd need a lot of imagination to understand those ruins.

A guide for the forum is a good idea. We had one and she was very good at explaining what we were looking at, and also at just moving us efficiently to the right places. We used La Dolce Vita tours. Unfortunately, although we enjoyed the forum tour, I could not recommend them. They picked a day for our Vatican tour when the Vatican was scheduled to be closed (something our hotel conceriege said they should have known). They proposed to give us a guide to take us on the tour the following day, but the guide never showed (a motorcycle accident or something like that). The manager was very apologetic and offerred us a free tour in Florence, but we already had a tour set up in Florence and didn't want to risk any further mishaps. Others might have had a good experience with this outfit, but overall ours was not.